Baytrees

About the service

Baytrees is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 10 people with a learning disability and autistic people. Care is provided over two floors in the main house and in a separate building in the grounds of the home. At the time of the inspection 10 people were living at the service. Nine people where accommodated in the main house and one person in the separate building.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Right Support

People were supported to have the maximum possible choice, independence and control over their own lives. People and their relatives were involved in their care and support was planned to ensure people had a good quality of life. People were supported to make choices about where they go, what they do and to follow their own interests. A relative told us, “[Person] doesn’t have any great needs but the whole home has really welcomed them. It’s like they’ve been there years, they love it there.” Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making and communicated with people in ways that met their needs. People went out often and accessed local health services; they regularly went on holiday and were supported to follow their dreams and aspirations. People were supported to maintain relationships with those who were important to them, they could visit people outside their home and have people visit them. People were supported by staff to use technology and video call their loved ones. People received care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff respected and promoted people's dignity, privacy and human rights. Care and support plans were person-centred, focussed on people's strengths and promoted independence. People who had individual ways of communicating, using body language, sounds, Makaton (a form of sign language), pictures and symbols could interact comfortably with staff and others involved in their care and support because staff had the necessary skills and experience to understand them. Staff were appropriately skilled to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. A relative told us, “They [staff] all know what they’re doing, they always talk to [person], not over their head, everyone knows [person] and says hello. They have their own core staff who know them best though and they’re very caring.” Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse and worked well with other agencies to do so. People told us they felt safe and viewed staff as their family. People had unrestricted access to their rooms which promoted privacy and dignity. Staff ensured people's human rights were met and people were supported to understand they have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens.

Right culture

Staff placed people's wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. The service promoted a homely, family-based culture and people were supported in this way. Staff understood the importance of relationships to people and made communication a priority. The managers and staff at the service demonstrated values, attitudes and behaviours which supported people to lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives. Staff had received specific training to meet the needs of people with a learning disability and autistic people and spoke with passion about people and the care and support they provided. The service promoted an open and transparent culture which encouraged people and their relatives to share their views and ideas for developing the service. We saw staff fully involving people with activities and tasks of their choosing. Interactions between people and staff were patient, kind, sensitive and assuring. People were relaxed, often seen smiling and laughing together in their home.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Bay Tree is a care home that provides accommodation and personal care support for up to ten adults with learning disabilities. At the time of our inspection nine people were living at the service. The service was over two floors and had been fully adapted to meet the needs of people who lived there. People had their own bedrooms and bathrooms and shared the communal areas and garden.

We found the following examples of good practice.

The government's new guidance on visiting in care homes came into effect on the day of the inspection, 8 March 2021. The provider had worked with people and their friends and family to enable safe visiting to commence from this date.

All people and staff were engaging in regular COVID19 testing. Staff had undertaken training in understanding coronavirus and infection prevention and control. Staff had also been trained in how to undertake a Lateral Flow Test (LFT). This enabled staff to test all visitors on arrival. Visitors required a negative test result before being granted entry to the service.

Staff, people and visitors had access to Personal Protective Equipment(PPE). PPE stations were observed around the service and were fully stocked. Staff were observed to be wearing PPE in line with government guidelines. The layout of the service had been adjusted to enable space between people using communal areas.

The design of the service had allowed for isolation and shielding. Staff had ensured people were provided with meaningful activities and engagement during this time. People had remained in contact with family and friends through video calling, telephone and written correspondence.

The service was clean and odour free. Cleaning schedules ensured regular cleaning took place including enhanced cleaning of high touch areas.

At the last inspection carried out in November 2014 the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

We carried out this inspection as part of our routine schedule of inspections and to check that people were still receiving a good standard of care and support. The inspection took place on 23 May 2017 and was unannounced.

The service is run by a husband and wife partnership. Both partners work in the service and one of them is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People told us they felt safe with staff. There were no concerns about the safety of people. People knew who they would speak to if they had concerns. The service followed the West Sussex safeguarding procedure, which was available to staff. Staff knew what their responsibilities were in reporting any suspicion of abuse.

People were protected from risks to their health and wellbeing. Up to date plans were in place to manage risks, without unduly restricting people’s independence. There were sufficient numbers of staff to support people and safe recruitment practices were followed. Medicines were managed safely.

People felt they were treated with respect and their privacy was promoted. Staff were caring and responsive to the needs of the people they supported. People's health and well-being was assessed and measures put in place to ensure people's needs were met in an individualised way.

Staff received training to enable them to do their jobs safely and to a good standard. They felt the support received helped them to do their jobs well.

People benefited from receiving a service from staff who worked well together as a team. Staff were confident they could take any concerns to the management and these would be taken seriously. People and their relatives were aware of how to raise a concern and were confident appropriate action would be taken.

People and their relatives were empowered to contribute to improve the service. They had opportunities to feedback their views about the service and quality of the care they had received.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

People told us that they were well supported with their care and treatment. We made observations throughout the visit and saw people had been choices as to how they wanted to spend their time. Staff told us that people were encouraged to do activities which they enjoyed. One member of staff told us, 'We enjoy working here. It's hard work, but very rewarding'.

We observed that the home was generally clean and tidy. Rooms we looked at were personalised. People that used the service had their own possessions in their rooms.

One relative that we spoke with told us the manager and staff communicated well and discussed any issues with them. They told us, "Both my husband and I believe the care is first class'.

We asked them if there were things to do at the Baytrees. They talked about the various activities they enjoyed. These included regular outings to local places of interest, being able to walk down to the local shops if they wanted to and bowling. One of them said 'I like going out to Arundel'. The other person said 'If the weather is nice I can go for a walk when a member of staff is free.'

We also talked to two members of staff who were on duty. They told us felt well supported in their work and felt they have received all the training they needed to undertake their role.